Image forming devices are known. For example, such image forming devices include copiers and printers. In most image forming device designs, documents are typically controlled by baffles and guides. Ideally we want to have a very narrow gap (3-5 mm) between the upper or “decurler entrance” baffle and the lower or “fuser stripper” baffle in order to control the position of the document. The wider the distance between the baffles, the more challenging it is to control the paper.
In applications such as the image forming device Nuvera's fuser assembly, the document is not completely controlled or properly guided into the decurler nip roll.
NOTE: The term “NUVERA” is a trademark of Xerox Corporation, P.O. Box 1600, 800 Long Ridge Road, Stamford, Conn. 06904.
For this particular application, heavy weight documents will travel at a different paper trajectory than light weight documents. As a result, the current design has to be wide enough to accommodate the different paper trajectories. Having a wider entrance aperture or throat, will sacrifice the performance of some documents. For the Nuvera fuser assembly, light medium to light weight documents can bounce around and miss the decurler nip, hitting the roll in an undesired area, thereby creating a paper jam or document defect known as a 51 mm “ding”.
The image forming device includes a fuser assembly wherein heavy weight document's trajectory is very predictable. For light weight documents, the document not only has a different trajectory but its path is not as predictable as the heavier document. This path could be affected by document variations such as paper curl (simplex-duplex), image area coverage, paper type, and so forth.
In the past, this problem was addressed by simply relying on the operator to clear the paper jam, and/or restricting paper weight/type machine can reliably feed without defect or paper jam.
Thus, there is a need for the present invention.